Philippines Books

How is this for irony…we were working on a review of Internet Service Providers for the Philippines but unfortunately the SmartBro service I was using at a friend’s house was down for a week and SmartBro support seemed incapable of fixing it.

The message on the screen informed me that I had been redirected to a particular SmartBro page because the bill is not paid or the service has been moved.

This happened of Friday and trying to use their automated help line was not just frustrating but impossible.   They asked for account numbers which I carefully entered only to be told that such an account did not exist and the call was disconnected.  

Back home a help desk will have an option to speak to an operator when you encounter any difficulty with the automated system but not SmartBros  1888 number. 

So I had to waited till Monday and sent my assistant to what I we were told was the closest Smart office.   He came back a few hours later told that the account was in order and to just check our physical connections (was everything plugged in).

Given that he had told them that it was an actual SmartBro onscreen message saying the service was disconnected this was not at all helpful.

Later in the afternoon I travelled to the SmartBro office and spoke with one of the representatives that logged the fault and promised someone would call the next day.

No one called the next day so I returned to the Smart Office and this time spoke to a manager this time promised someone would be onsite the next morning.

No one called or visited and the Manager did not respond to any of my messages until late afternoon and then said he was “lowbat’ but I know this was not true as his phone had rung when I had tried it around midday.

I then begged and even threatened (only in terms of making a complaint) but the Manager  John Hensen just did not seem to care.  

On the Friday I ordered a new service on behalf of my friend and was resigned to never having SmartBro work again.  

Then when visiting another Mall I saw a Smart office and decided to try one last time.

I waited about an hour feeling very frustrated but eventually my number came up and spoke to a lady who after looking at the account worked out the problem in just a few minutes.  

It turns out that the account of my friend was in fact unpaid and by paying it the service would be restored in less than two hours.

The problem was that the address of my friends service was wrong and going to a non-existent address but another account with the correct address but different name was suddenly coming to the address where my friends service was located.  That is the account they had paid.

The Smart office of John Hensen had not spotted this and was just too keen to pass me on to support but failed to take any responsibility or follow up when support failed to contact me.

I will write the complaint about the incident and also commend the lady at the other office that quickly spotted the problem and got a fast resolution.

As for the account confusion this is a very suspect situation that needs to be followed up by the owner of the service as there could be some sort of fraud.

Before anyone accuses me of being a hypocrite, I freely admit I have been to Angeles in the past and I enjoyed the place for what it was then and is now.  I believe we must always have places like Angeles, they serve a purpose that human nature creates and I won’t be so naïve as to deny it.

But times and people change and I find myself quite disillusioned with the whole sordid sewer of a place that is really just a very small section of an otherwise vibrant and wonderful Filipino city.  So with that understanding between us (writer and reader), let us progress.  Angeles City sprung up to serve the needs of the US military.  Back in 1902 when the US Cavalry set up a remount station and cavalry camp there the local barangay was some distance from the camp gates.  Gradually the place grew as those bars and brothels that sprung up outside the camp gates met with the spreading tentacles of Angeles City proper.   

The hey day of Angeles would have had to have been in the 1960’s and into the 1970’s during the Vietnam War.  The expats who have retired here who spent time in the USAF stationed at Clark still hold the attitude that they own the town and the people.  Or at least many I have met do.  I can understand that sentiment as the USAF poured up to a million dollars a week into the town, more sometimes.

The airmen had the money and lust, the local girls had the looks and the need.  Perfect symbiotic relationship in anyone’s book.  Clark had the highest divorce rate of any military base according to one source.  He explained it was no wonder when Mrs Obese Ohio ’74 spent her days hiding in the house because the locals stared at her and hubby was off in the bars chasing sweet young Filipina’s all night long.

I spoke to one man who was one of the team that investigated the backgrounds of women engaged to servicemen.  He said it was more of a surprise when they found out she wasn’t out of a bar or had been selling her services one way or another for some time.  Most of the Filipinas were working girls, how else would they meet their future husbands?  He said he would love to follow up on some of the cases he had back then and see how many were still together, how many were divorced and so on.  He felt that there would be a higher percentage of couples still married than the national average.  He also felt if the marriage broke down after more than five years you really couldn’t pin it on the girls’ previous employment. 

June 15 1991 was the day Mount Pinatubo speeded up the inevitable.  With the nationalistic bent of many in the country; many who gained nothing from the US bases as they were but might if they were open to local development, it was a fairly foregone conclusion the Yanks would have to go home.  I have asked dozens of Filipino’s and I have yet to find one who has benefited from the USAF not being at Clark.  I have yet to find a single Filipino who doesn’t want them back!  Obviously I am asking the wrong people.  I need to get out and ask the rich minority who own businesses in the Clark Special Economic Zone that replaced the base. 

Unlike Subic Bay, where far sighted Richard Gordon organised the local middle class to protect the greatest asset their town (Olongapo) possessed, when the USAF left Clark it was in a bit of a hurry.  People were assured their homes would be protected and their belongings safely packed and sent on to them but many I have spoken to claim locals simply walked on base and looted every home they could enter.  They never saw their personal effects again. 

It is close to 20 years since all of that happened yet I can remember it as if it were just last week. One thing is certain, Angeles City is more than just Fields Avenue in Balibago. It is a thriving city with hospitals, universities and a heck of a lot going for it beyond the red light strip bordering Clark Special Economic Zone. Get away from the entertainment area and explore the city and surrounding province and you will find a lot more to do than just hang out in bars and drink beer.

A 67 year old Australian was shot twice in the head on Monday as he sat drinking in a bar in Aklan, south of Manila.  The murderer has been arrested by police however no motive or the cold blooded killing has as yet been offered. Read More…

For those who love reading Perry Gamsby’s insightful guides to all things Filipino For The Foreigner, but prefer to be able to hold the book in their hands instead of read off a computer monitor… you will be pleased to learn they are now becoming progressively available via Lulu.com.  ‘Philippine Dreams’, also sold as ‘StreetWise Philippines’ in a slightly different edition is the first of the range available in hard copy.

‘Filipina Dreams’ is the terrific value three-in-one hard copy (paperback) version of  the best selling ‘Filipina 101 – How To Meet The Filipina Of Your Dreams’ and the well regarded sequel, ‘Filipina 202 – How To Marry and Migrate Your Dream Filipina’. It includes both of these books under the one cover, as well as the 2009 updates and also ‘Filipina 303 – Making The Magic Last’. After reading this collection of hard earned experience any ‘Kano’ will be far better situated when it comes to understanding his Filipina and hopefully making the right choices. If nothing else, he’ll have a fair idea where he went wrong!

Also available is ‘Making A Living In The Philippines – The StreetWise Guide To Investing, Employment and Business’ and ‘Philippines Property Primer’, the real estate guide that has already saved quite a few readers a considerable amount of time and money according to independent testimonials.

As well as these, the ‘Philippines Survival Handbook’ is also available in hard cop. This text delivers a very broad approach to personal risk management in the Philippines and in fact, anywhere in the world. If you ever wondered how you would lie low in a country where you stand out from the crowd in nearly every way, read on!

In all fairness to the young lady who wrote to me about my web site ‘degrading’ her (see ‘Mail Order Bride’ below), she made some valid points. WHile I responded in that article with a rebuke regarding the reasons why the situation is as it is, the fact remains that many people view all Filipinas as ‘mail order brides’. Yes, it is unfair, yes it i wrong, yes it is inaccurate but sorry, it happens. It is then up to the individual I suppose to change the perception if she feels it necessary.

I didn’t create the situation and I won’t eradicate it, but I will not be a part of the problem and I do what I can to adjust attitudes. In my book ‘Philippine Dreams’ I make the point very clearly and in the opening paragraph that there is no such thing as a MOB and that I find the term offensive. It offends the Filipina and her foreigner partner. No woman will have herself delivered FedEx’d to someone halfway around the world just to escape grinding poverty. Well, not many anyway. Unless you have experienced such grinding poverty firsthand I guess you can’t say with any accuracy exactly how far you would go to improve your situation and future prospects.

The situation is not resting purely on one group or another, there are several vested interests involved. First of al there are the men who seek a companion from foreign stock. Whether they use an old fashioned printed catalogue and snail mail exchanges or the plethora of personal introduction web sites or even the web cam that allows vision and speech to speed up the whole process. What used to take many months of long waits for replies now can be over and done with in a day. While that allows people to get to know each other quickly and rapidly weed out the poor matches, it also opens up a pandora’s box of possibilities for getting ripped off. From either party.

Web cams, chat rooms and even those pay to view soft porn sites are places where men and women can meet in cyber space. I think they are not as invasive as an exchange between a sex worker and her customer, face to face but others might see little or no distinction. Of course for every girl working the web for her living there are many more simply trying to meet a man they can love and live with.

What my critic doesn’t know is that I was the person who branded the Filipino dating site ‘Itzamatch.com’ . This site is like any other dating site and is aimed at those Filipinos and Filipinas who are looking for friends and partners, be they heterosexual, homosexual or whatever. It is not a MOB site. The social class of the members is different to those who frequent the sites where the foreigners are likely to be found. They are younger, monied, educated and have never had to wonder if there will be any food on the table tonight, they were spoon fed by their YaYa until they were 8!

Of the foreigner contact sites, the men who visit there are as mixed a bunch as any. Most of them are over 40 and divorced, usually from the USA but increasing numbers from elsewhere in the western ‘Anglosphere’ world. Why are they there? Why are they looking for love and companionship from third world women of much less sophisticated backgrounds with arguably far less education than they have? Many do have college degrees and good employment prospects in their own right once out of the Philippines but the majority are at best high school graduates from small, provincial barangays.

Is it because these are the Filipinas who make up the majority of the pool of available marriageable women? Why? Well if you are well educated and live in an upscale home with servants and money and a future why do you need to find a ‘fat, old foreigner man’?

Keep in mind many of these men failed in their relationships with western women. They did not like the competition as society swings over from the old ‘wagon train’ mentality to the new ’spaceship’ one. The wagon train had the men fighting off the ‘injuns’ and the ‘wimmin’ making vittles and bearing children and so on. The spaceship has everybody equal as technology removes the need for the male attributes of strength, aggression and the ability to pee standing up. Upscale Filipinas are already on the launch pad while poorer girls are still hitching up the horses. In some cases literally if you substitute a carabao for the horse!

So the man thinks he wil get a better deal from a woman who treats him as the head of the house and appreciates what (little) he can provide for her. Unlike his first wife who was always whining and demanding more, his Filipina fetches and carries for him as if he were the most important person in the room. And he is until she can get the Green Card and the bank account and a job in the US and take care of herself and her family without him.

It happens and it is happening more and more. While there are still many dedicated, loving Filipinas genuinely seeking a man to love and cherish, there are more and more looking for a way to improve their lot in life and he is merely a means to that end. On the other hand, there are far too many men who treat women (all women) abominably. They should not be able to form relationships because they are so bad at them. They are selfish and childish and self centered and treat their wives like submissive sex slaves and then wonder why she left him. Or had him killed if he is living with her in the Philippines. (See related stories below)

Ten years ago I read little but success stories of Fil-Foreigner marriages. Today I read of more failed relationships, rip offs and scams and I wonder why. I think the speed of things is the factor. The internet has sped up the process so that no longer do you have to work at the relationship. A few clicks of a mouse and you can exchange a lifetime of lies. Then you rush into each other’s arms, be on your best behaviour and before you now it time has passed and you are ready for the ‘happy ever after’. Only then you find she/he is not as you were led to believe.

Men and women are made different for a reason, to compliment each other. When you add the societal and cultural differences, you have two people who really need to be either a match made in heaven (a fictitious place by the way) or they will both have to compromise and work together to make the marriage work. And hard work is too hard for most people, we all prefer the path of least resistance nowadays and that is divorce.

If two people who grew up in the same culture, speak exactly the same language and share the same societal values can’t get along, what makes these men think they can do it with a Filipina? And not a well educated one with a much closer grasp of western culture but one who has a warped version of our values. A woman who has probably never used a knife and fork, at best a fork and spoon and most likely her fingers to eat with. A woman from a family of many, perhaps with only the scattered education of the less than adequate government school system and full of mixed up myths and superstitions from the blend of catholicism and animism that passes for religion for 84% of the population.

Even is she speaks English, it will be a very different version to the English the man is familiar with. Word meanings are extreme only. If a word can mean even just two things and one is worse than the other, be assured she only knows the worse meaning. If you then use the word in its other context she will misunderstand you and it’s ON! Foreigner men forget how important family is to these women. All they have is their family, their kin and their lives often depend on each other. They don’t have social security, health insurance or much other than superstition and magic. They live in a land of volcanos, typhoons, floods, landslides, disease and reckless driving all backed up by the ridiculous belief that God will provide and if anything bad happens then it is His will and you can;t do a thing about it… bahala na!

So even the men who have only the very best of intentions have their work cut out for them. If both parties really try and work hard to make their marriage last then they will succeed and it will be a strong marriage. But if just one of them has any doubts or lacks total commitment or entered into the union for less than the stated reasons; it is doomed. Keep in mind many Fil-Fil marriages fail. The difference is the iron grip of the catholic church means only the wealthy and privileged can afford to buy annulments. Everybody else makes do by pretending all is well. There are far too many single parents, abandoned mothers and children, kept mistresses and bigamous relationships in the Philippines. But of course these are not acknowledged as they do not tally with what the culture claims.

The society is corrupt from the top down. Systemically corrupt. That might offend many but it is the truth and deep down they know it is the truth. Corrupt societies are far more open to exploitation than societies with moral integrity. Part of the problem are foreigner men who exploit the desire of less fortunate women to escape such a society. Of course the well off have no need to leave what for them is a great place and so they take offense at being seen as the same as those who do what they must to survive.

Life is not fair, it never was and never will be. I think in countries like the Philippines Life is more obvious, more in your face than in western countries where we tend to hide it behind a veneer of social justice and projected equality. Of course we have very serious societal problems in the west, no denying that and no doubt we have contributed to the problems experienced in the third world. But at least on this web site I like to think an honest view is expressed and if that cause someone to feel degraded, then they must ask themselves, why?

I received this email from an obviously well educated Filipina. While I understand her point of view, I argue that the situation is not of my making and if anyone is actively attempting to change the perception of Filipinas as mail-order brides and as commodities then it is I through my eBooks.

This young woman has had the benefit of a privileged upbringing in one of the wealthier families in the country. These are the families that own everything and part of the reason why the majority of Filipinos are poor and many feel the need to marry older foreigners and leave for a better future. It is her generation and social class that must take action and stop the cronyism of the ‘trapos’, or traditional politicians. These trapos are all from the same families, they merely swap political positions from election to election. They own all the commerce and industry and manipulate the economy and society to maintain the status quo. A situation that can only be changed by the young, educated and well off classes taking charge and demonstrating some leadership. Leadership worth following. I doubt it will happen while they stand to gain from maintaining this situation. Perhaps the pressure of being thought of as a mail order bride just might spur some into taking action?

Then the ‘masa’ will follow, they will cast off the yoke of the catholic church (controlling them with myth, superstitious ritual and the prohibition on effective birth control) and hopefully the country will move forward with some real hope for a brighter future for all Filipinos. Right now those whose only hope is to marry a ‘fat, old foreigner’ will cause all Filipinas to be cast in the same mold. So do something about it rich, educated Filipinas! It starts with you and the way you treat your domestic servants, the helper, the yaya, the lavenderia, the driver and the guard, then the sales clerks and waiters and so on. Treat them as equals and not as serfs and servants. People doing a vital job to make a living, not just there to make your living easy. Here is her email:

Good Evening,

I must say, your website is quite degrading. It’s true that many Filipinas do want to marry foreigners for money/white skin/”a better life abroad”, but not all of us do. Some of us are actually educated (not just in school but in life as well), have active intellects, and futures to build wherever we please. It’s unfair to the rest of us for websites like yours to portray all Filipinas as women desperate to find rich, old, fat guys looking for a child bride. Granted, you don’t use those words specifically, but it does come across like that.

I’m twenty-six years old and I’ve been actively chatting and making friends online since the mid-90s (I was twelve). Given that, I’ve met countless men who only saw me as a Filipina and automatically tried to find some way of getting married either to me or one of my friends. Unfortunately, my friends aren’t in the social class that usually marries foreigners so they can “get a better life abroad”. It’s been painful and very harrassing to be approached by men old enough to be my dad, and be asked if I’d marry them. I’ve cried innumerable times from the harrassing feeling of having pensioners and middle-aged men suddenly attracted to me all because I’m a Filipina.

I’m sure you only want to share your happiness with other men and women and you don’t mean any harm, but not all Filipinas are the way you say they are. It’s very humiliating and degrading to have to explain that I’m “not that type of Filipina” and I’m not looking for “a better life” because a better life for me actually means working hard for it and earning it myself. I have to make this explanation a lot because of websites like yours.

I’m not asking you to shut down your site, merely to be more considerate and include a paragraph or two advising your clients not to jump to conclusions, and to consider that no nation is homogeneous. We’re all different, therefore not all Filipinas are looking for a man who “can give them a better life”.

To be honest, I’m currently dating an Englishman, but it’s not because he’s white or he can “give me a better life”. He’s three years my junior, and when we met, he was still at university. But because of the stigma of the “Filipina mail-order bride”, instead of being proud to be together, we hid the nature of our relationship (and how we met) from our families and friends. It took several months to actually decide to tell other people that we were in a long-distance relationship. We met and became close because of similar interests, as I’m sure several of your clients have done with their wives. But unlike your clients, he had never met a Filipino or Filipina before, and he only found out about Filipina dating sites after we had met and he looked up Filipinas (to learn more about my culture). That was when we decided not to be completely honest with other people about our relationship. Since then, I’ve told my family and friends and have had to answer
too many personal questions and explain to every single one of them that my boyfriend “is not some old, fat guy wanting me to move to his country” but is someone who is actually around my age, has never been married, is going to follow me to whatever country I decide to settle down in, and feels the same way I do about mail-order Filipinas”.

I understand you have no ill will for Filipinas, but please, please explain to your clients that Filipinas aren’t all the way they expect. Your clients may not understand how their inconsiderate approach affects those of us that aren’t desperate for a way out of the country. It’s painful and it’s making some of us distrust Caucasians in general. At one point, I lashed out even at people who only wanted to make friends with me, because I had gotten another stupid message from someone who seemed to not even consider that Filipinas were not all made from the same mold. I apologised to my friends, but it was no less painful.

I honestly hope you set the record straight.

Thank you for your time,

(Name and address supplied but withheld by Editorial policy)

Well Miss, I think you should be very grateful you are so fortunate to be born into a family rich enough to provide you with such a future. Too many Filipinas have nothing to use to secure a better life than their looks and personalities and a very, very big reason for this is the systemic corruption and exploitation of the majority by the rich, landed and well educated classes. Feudalism ended in the west some centuries ago, colonialism perhaps less than half a century back and yet thanks to the influence of the catholic church and the greed of the oligarchs, the Philippines remains pretty much how it was when the Spanish owned the place.

I’m sorry you feel my web site degrades you, but that is your choice to feel that way. The truth never degrades or offends, it is merely what it is… the truth.

April 9 is when we remember the surrender of the US and Filipino forces on Bataan, 1942. After several months of heroic defense with little food and supplies they were finally overcome by the Japanese. Not ready for the logistical nightmare of moving over 60,000 troops and many wounded, they marched most of them from Bataan to San Fernando where they boarded trains for Capas and then the final walk to Camp O’Donnell. Along the way some 16,000 men were murdered by the Japanese in what has become known as The Bataan Death March.

I have followed the trail of poignant markers from Mariveles to San Fernando. I have been to Camp O’Donnell and have the honour to say I contributed to the Cross that has been erected there in honour of those brave men and women.

Click on the link above, read about the Battling Bastards of Bataan. Lest We Forget

My daughters are always asking me if that dog bites or will this cat bite etc. I remind them that if it has teeth, it bites something with them! Sadly, a schoolgirl on her way to her floating school on Lake Mihaba in Mindanao was bitten by a saltwater crocodile estimated at 7m (23 ft) in length. Her boat was bumped by the croc and her headless body later found by locals.

The report, available online, is reproduced below:

A 10-year-old girl has been decapitated by a crocodile in a Philippine lake after it knocked over her canoe.

The girl and a classmate were on their way to their floating school on Mihaba Lake when the seven metre crocodile hit the boat and caused it to capsize.

Rescuers found the girl’s headless body floating on the lake yesterday.

Her classmate was rescued by a man escorting the pair in another boat.

Roel Hipulan from the group that runs the school said it was a monster crocodile.

He said saltwater crocodiles, some bigger than a bus, are known to inhabit the lake, though attacks are rare.

“The crocodiles have become aggressive,” he said.

The lake’s waters have been swollen for the past several months, causing fish to scatter to others parts.

The crocodile attack has prompted the evacuation of about 100 residents.

Saltwater crocs are rare except for some places in Mindanao and Palawan, where they are often large and nasty. We have them in tropical northern Australia and they are a worry, indeed. This is a timely reminder that not all the threats expats face are man made. Nature has some nasty surprises in store in the form of snakes, spiders, sharks, crocs, centipedes, viruses, typhoons, earthquakes and mudslides. Spare a thought for some of these and how exposed you and your loved ones are to falling foul of Mother Nature.

Another Australian man in his mid-fifties has been murdered in the Philippines. This time the victim was shot in the chest when armed intruders broke into his home in Negros. His Filipina girlfriend fled via a window. I have to say that this spate of three in less than three months is a new phenomena in my experience.

While I don’t think there is any kind of organised cleansing of Aussie expats in train, I do warn all readers once again to give their personal security a bit of serious thought. There are plenty of guns in the waistbands of Flipinos and it often doesn’t take much to make an enemy. Even laughing about something else while a Filipino sings Karaoke has been enough to get you killed.

Take care and take precautions. Check out my ‘Philippines Survival Handbook‘ and ‘SWITCH ON!” to personal safety!

I love Puerto Galera! PG is on the island of Mindoro which even today is a pretty rugged and inhospitable place despite being relatively close to Manila. PG is a great dive area with some top drift dives. One drift dive I did years ago had me hurtling towards ‘Hole in the Wall’ at 2-3 knots. You have to decide if you are going to abort the drift or shoot for the hole in the wall! Exciting stuff. On the other side there is an abyss that can suck a diver down 50m or more in seconds. The trick is to not venture out too far over the abyss and avoid the down draft. I was holding onto the rocks for grim death when I dived the bowl.

There is another great drift dive where you drift along in one direction for a while then ascend a few metres and you catch a counter current going the other way! Awesome stuff! The currents are strong at times and it pays to eitehr be in good shape or just go with the flow and have the dive boat follow your bubbles!

There are a couple of purpose sunk wrecks in Sabang Bay on the sand where you can feed the fish. Tame by most wreck dive standards but still good fun and a great dive if you have been dry for a while and need a gentle refresher and re-introduction to scuba diving.

The place has plenty of PADI approved schools to choose from right along the waterfront. Most are tied up with affordable accommodation and cold beer and unless it is Chinese New Year you should be able to get a bed without too much trouble.

Getting there from Manila is easy enough with the new South Luzon Expressway cutting quite a bit off the drive time. You can rent a car, hire a taxi or FX or grab the bus from the City State Hotel in Ermita. There are public buses to Batangas, the jumping off point but for first time travellers that might be a tad confusing. At the port there is a major ferry that goes over, tied in with the bus service and you can also take local bancas, or pump boats.

I hired one late one night with two mates and a Filipina and we nearly had a pirate fight in the middle of the channel with the crew when the captain wanted more money. Stick with the main bus and ferry providers and do it in daylight and you won;t have any trouble.

If you don’t scuba dive, then you can learn or, just enjoy the resort atmosphere and the two or three girlie bars and the plethora of restaurants. Venturing further afield and exploring Mindoro is doable, but be prepared for real adventure travelling! Whatever you do, Puerto Galera is a must-visit destination.